The invention concerns continuous-operation extraction machinery for strip mining that travels under its own power on continuous track treads and includes a cylindrical extractor with blades distributed around it, whereby the extracted material is transferred through a chute to a conveyor belt positioned axially inside the cylinder.
Surface cutters for roadway traces or integuments are known. They have small-diameter abrading cylinders, travel on continuous track treads, and fling the extracted material through a hopper and onto an intermediate belt between the treads at the back of the vehicle. The intermediate belt transfers the material onto a belt that can be pivoted over a truck.
Strip-mining machinery that operates in accordance with what is called the Scatterwhite method is known. Four adjacent overhead bucket wheels are mounted in front and fling the extracted material onto two transverse belts behind them. The transverse belts transfer it to an intermediate belt that travels in a direction opposite that of the vehicle and merges into a catapulting belt that can be pivoted over a truck.
Strip-mining machinery of the foregoing species is described in the as yet unpublished German patent application no. P 3 920 011.6. The material extracted by the abrading cylinder in this equipment is flung out to the front by a belt inside the cylinder. The belt flings it onto a bridging belt that is universally articulated to it. The expulsion end of the bridging band is itself universally articulated to a hopper car. The material drops down through the hopper and onto a face belt. The strip-mining equipment described in P 3 920 011.6 has, to the extent that it addresses the concept of the extractor itself, the abrading cylinder, that is, a wide range of applications. The constellation of conveying mechanisms as for example, bridging belt, face belt, etc. described in that document, however, cannot be employed in individual cases, when for example local strip-mining conditions do not allow the belts to be erected as described.